Herzberg's Dissatisfiers

04/26/2006

One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.
E. M. Forster

Last month in this ExchangeEveryDay the work of F. Herzberg was discussed. Herzberg was one of the first of what we now call Organizational Development researchers and, building on the work of Maslow, found there were a few key factors that worked to enhance peoples’ satisfaction at work. These included:

Feeling a sense of accomplishment
Receiving recognition
Finding work challenging and creative
Assuming responsibility, and
Advancing and earning promotions

But Herzberg’s study has another important message to early childhood directors. He also found that there were four powerful dissatisfiers that could undermine one’s program if they were absent or not acceptable. The dissatisfiers are:

Policies and administration — If employees view the management or administrative structure as unfair and/or inefficient morale is significantly reduced. All employees want to believe that their hard work and caring is being matched by the efforts of those at the top of the organization and that they will get the support they need in carrying out the mission of the program.
Supervision — The employee’s perception of their supervisor is in fact more significant than the accuracy of that perception. If they see their supervisor as arbitrary, unfair, and/or incompetent it will have a profound effect on their attitude about work. They will be significantly less satisfied at work if the supervisor is perceived as unappreciative, inflexible, and dishonest.
Working Conditions — This includes both the physical environment and the workload! People do work better in attractive environments and when they have at minimum adequate lighting and ventilation and feel their workplace is safe and attractive. We probably spend far too little time on children’s aesthetic education to begin with. Too many environments are cluttered and crowded. As for workload, when teachers have too many children to supervise, they simply can’t teach and move into disaster prevention mode.
Salaries — When salary increases are perceived to be inadequate or distributed unfairly, resentment can build quickly. All employees need to understand the salary structure and believe it is justified.

Next month: Things a director can do to increase the satisfiers and eliminate the dissatisfiers.

Contributed by Joel Gordon

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